The most attacked candidate in the governor's race

You might think that U.S. Sen. David Vitter would be the best positioned to be attacked in Louisiana's race for governor, given his past controversy and frontrunner status. Think again. Right now the honor falls instead to Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, a fellow Republican who has been the target of the most direct hand grenades so far.

The latest was tossed by Vitter last week at a gubernatorial forum hosted by the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association in Lake Charles. The senator went after Angelle before he even introduced himself. "I just want wanted everyone to know I'm not the guy who single-handedly ended the moratorium with a speech at the Cajundome," Vitter said.

Angelle seethed as Vitter gave half a smile. Still, many in the crowd probably missed the significance. The remark was a swipe at one of Angelle's defining political moments from 2010, when he whipped a crowd of 15,000 or so into a frenzy in the Lafayette Cajundome. Angelle was interim lieutenant governor at the time, in the wake of the BP oil spill, when a drilling moratorium had halted activity in the Gulf. Angelle has used video from the speech in campaign commercials in the past, noting his work with industry to halt the moratorium.

Vitter didn't push the issue further, but it's clear that his suggestion was that it took much more than a speech to end the moratorium, that there was work being done on the Hill by his office too.

It didn't go unanswered. After Vitter talked about the importance of tort reform at the forum, Angelle passionately pointed out that Vitter voted to increase the jury threshold as a member of the Legislature. That's a sore spot for business and industry, which doesn't agree with the highest-in-the-nation $50,000 threshold one has to reach to get a jury trial.

"David was one of those 53 votes," Angelle said, directing his voice at Vitter. "So I appreciate you acknowledging my great work at the Cajundome, and rocking the house over there, and I just want to make sure I acknowledge your efforts on raising the jury threshold to $50,000."

The latent hostility on the stage was unmistakable. Tension has been growing between the two camps for months and it was only a matter of time until the top blew off. As such, the candidates' future exchanges promise to be the most entertaining sideshow in the race for governor.

Nonetheless, it was actually state Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite, who hit Angelle first with commercials on black radio stations in February accusing the public service commissioner of being "Bobby Jindal's right-hand man." That an attack came this early in the race was surprising. That it involved Gov. Jindal, who has appointed Angelle to several high-profile jobs and whose popularity continues to sink, was not.

Ryan Cross, Angelle's campaign manager, offered this response: "Scott Angelle has been fighting for the people of Louisiana since before Bobby Jindal had a driver's license."

The big question is why Angelle is being attacked. A poll released last week by the Mississippi-based Triumph Campaigns shows Angelle with 7 percent. The firm said none of the campaigns nor any other of the related political action committees paid for the poll.

So why attack someone in single digits? For starters, Angelle has showed a little movement, up from 2 percent in earlier polls, with several months to go before the general election. He's building a base in Acadiana, which has paved the road to the Governor's Mansion for the likes of Edwin Edwards, Kathleen Blanco and Mike Foster. He raised more money over a three-month period in 2014 than two of the other candidates collected all year.

But when Angelle launched a $200,000 ad buy in the region last month, becoming the first candidate to go up on TV, he caught the attention of the other campaigns in a big way. Especially the senator's camp. If Angelle starts trending, his votes will undoubtedly be pulled from Vitter, who has few places to turn to make up for the losses.

The attacks were part of a preventive strategy, and it goes to show that there's often an underlying design behind going negative. Whether this most recent assault against Angelle did the trick, or if it actually served to raise his profile, we'll just have to wait and see. But with this race promising to go from hot to boiling very soon, with all of the candidates eventually taking fire, voters would do well to remember to question not only the message, but also the motive.

— Jeremy Alford is the publisher-editor of LaPolitics.com/LaPolitics Weekly. Email him at JJA@LaPolitics.com.